RdbAdmin, free at last!

The Rdbadmin database administration has a couple of purposes.

Firstly, of course, it is a tool for administering Rdbhost databases.  As an online application, it is available to all accounts immediately, without installing anything. 

Secondly, it is an example of what can be done from Javascript to manipulate online databases.  We could have done a server-side admin script, ala PhpMysqlAdmin, but that might seem like an expression of no faith in the Rdbhost design.  If we are presenting the host as a do-anything-from-Javascript database host, shouldn't we walk the walk, and implement database tools in Javascript ourselves?

Rdbadmin has, thus, always been a Javascript application, and source code has been available for the borrowing.  However, before now, it did not run on any server other than the rdbhost.com server, due to Javascript cross-site-scripting protections.  That is about to change:  I have been, over the last month, rewriting the Rdbadmin app to use the Rdb.js interface module, which makes it portable.  By mid-week, you will be able to check-out from subversion a version that works hosted on any* server, to access databases hosted on Rdbhost.  You will then have a working admin script on your server, subject to your evolutionary refinements, or to just borrow working code from for your own Rdbhost-based projects.


The Rdb.js module itself will be properly released this week as well, with documentation.  It is available now, on github, but lacks documentation, and is still kindof crufty with dead code.



* The Javascript cross-site-scripting constraints have not gone away, so you will need to be able to create (and point offsite) a new subdomain for your host server; a how-to will be in the release package.  We are also working on a CORS based approach, but that has its own limitations.